By Tim Cocks and Alexander Winning

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa's main coalition partners are embroiled in a spat over how to respond to looming tariffs from a hostile Trump administration, after the smaller party said the president's aide was denied a U.S. visa to negotiate with Washington.

The Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday that the United States had formally rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa's chosen interlocutor, Mcebisi Jonas, and had denied him a diplomatic visa in May.

By Ece Toksabay and Daren Butler

ANKARA (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan risks losing support among nationalist Turkish voters in making peace with Kurdistan Workers Party militants, whose burning of weapons last week was dismissed by some as a stunt.

A backlash to Erdogan's call on Saturday for wide parliamentary support for the process underlines the challenge he faces in balancing nationalist and Kurdish demands, with a failure to do so potentially jeopardising the plan's success.

By Timour Azhari

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Western diplomats were passing near Syria's defence ministry in Damascus in an armoured convoy when Israel struck the building with several missiles on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter, including a Syrian eyewitness.

No-one in the convoy was injured and it continued on its way, the people said, declining to give further details on the nationalities or number of those involved.

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel will raise defence spending by 42 billion shekels ($12.5 billion) in 2025 and 2026, the finance and defence ministries said on Thursday, citing the country's security challenges.

The budget agreement will allow the Defence Ministry to "advance urgent and essential procurement deals critical to national security," the ministries said in a statement.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes on Damascus are hampering Syria's efforts to find and destroy chemical weapons stockpiled during the rule of toppled ruler Bashar al-Assad, a government adviser said on Thursday.

A planned visit by inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has already had to be postponed, adviser Ibrahim Olabi said.

ROME (Reuters) -Pope Leo said on Thursday he hopes to travel to Turkey later this year for the 1,700th anniversary of a major Christian Church summit, in what would be the first foreign trip of his papacy.

The early centuries of Christianity were marked by a lively debate about how Jesus could be both God and man, and the Church decided on the issue at the First Council of Nicaea - now known as Iznik in Turkey - in 325.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Crispian Balmer

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli forces killed at least 22 people in attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and several were hurt in a strike on a church that late Pope Francis used to speak to regularly, medics and church officials said.

Eight men tasked with protecting aid trucks were reported among the dead in airstrikes that were carried out as mediators continued ceasefire talks in Doha.

An Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church killed three people on Thursday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Israel said it "never targets" religious sites and regretted any harm to civilians.

Pope Leo XIV said he was "deeply saddened" by the loss of life, which a witness said was the result of a tank shell hitting the church.

AFP footage showed those injured being treated at Gaza City's Al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, with one receiving oxygen and blood while lying under a foil blanket.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -A drone attack targeted an oilfield operated by Norwegian oil and gas firm DNO in Tawke, in the Zakho Administration area of northern Iraq, on Thursday, the Kurdistan region's counter-terrorism service said.

The attack is the second on the DNO-operated field since a wave of drone attacks began early this week.

DNO, which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho area that borders Turkey, temporarily suspended production at the fields following explosions that caused no injuries, the counter-terrorism service said.

(Reuters) -A new U.S. assessment has found that American strikes in June destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites, NBC News reported on Thursday, citing current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump rejected a military plan for further comprehensive strikes on Iran's nuclear program, which would have lasted several weeks, the report added.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in BengaluruEditing by Bernadette Baum)